The present invention relates to display control methods and apparatuses for printers, and, more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for displaying information regarding the position of a cartridge requiring replacement due to decrease of the amount of a recording agent retained in the cartridge.
As printers, inkjet types are generally used. An inkjet printer includes ink cartridges for retaining ink of different colors such as cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and the like. Each of the ink cartridges supplies the ink to corresponding nozzles, which eject the ink for printing. If the ink supply of any of the ink cartridges is completely depleted, the ink of the corresponding color cannot be used for printing. Thus, when any of the ink cartridges requires replacement due to decrease of the corresponding ink supply, the user needs to be informed of such information.
For this purpose, methods of monitoring the ink amount by means of a host computer have been proposed. More specifically, in one such method, the ink amount of each of the ink cartridges is displayed on a utility screen of a printer driver when the utility screen is first displayed on a display of the host computer. However, this method involves activation of the host computer, thus complicating user operation. To solve this problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-205624 describes a technique allowing the user to visibly acknowledge the ink amount of each ink cartridge with the ink cartridges maintained in the printer.
However, this technique requires each ink cartridge to be arranged at a position that ensures the visibility of the corresponding ink supply, thus restricting the component layout of the printer. Further, the printer using the technique has a visible interior, which may be aesthetically uncomfortable. The technique is thus difficult to actually apply.
Alternatively, requirement of the ink cartridge replacement may be informed through a display provided in a printer. However, some types of printers may include a plurality of cartridge accommodation portions. For example, in a printer having two cartridge accommodation portions, one of the accommodation portions accommodates cyan and magenta ink cartridges and the other accommodates yellow and black ink cartridges. In this case, even if the color of the ink cartridge requiring replacement is displayed on the display, the position of such ink cartridge is not acknowledgeable to the user, which is inconvenient for the user.